Flexible endoscopes in general and colonoscopes in particular are difficult to clean and disinfect thoroughly, leading to potential problems of cross-contamination between patients and between patients and staff. Additionally, such endoscopes often use expensive devices such as camera heads, electro-mechanical steering devices, and control electronics modules, which cannot be readily sterilized, and because of their cost, cannot be discarded after every use. These problems can be partially avoided by covering the endoscope with a single-use sleeve, into which the unsterilized endoscope may be inserted, and which can be disposed of after use, leaving the endoscope ready for the next procedure after insertion into a fresh sterile sleeve. This use of a disposable sleeve (also referred to as a sheath) to cover an endoscope is well known in the art.
There exist many prior art devices which address these problems. Some such prior art devices are described in patents or patent applications WO2007/093994, US2007/0255101, WO2007/029230, WO2006/025058, WO2005/110185, WO2004/016299, U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,409, U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,326, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,722, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,329, CN1,486,666 and US2003/0097043.
The disclosures of each of the publications mentioned in this section and in other sections of the specification, are hereby incorporated by reference, each in its entirety.